


Protect & Save

by Amaradex



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-22
Updated: 2011-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-27 18:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/298596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaradex/pseuds/Amaradex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dealing with Affenmenschen isn't as easy as Nick and Monroe had hoped.</p><p>Prompt at grimm-kink: Nick gets hurt (shot, stabbed, mauled, etc.) while protecting Eddie; how does Eddie's ultra-protective inner wolf handle this?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Protect & Save

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://grimm-kink.livejournal.com/452.html?thread=22212#t22212) prompt over at [grimm_kink](http://grimm-kink.livejournal.com/)

"Back!"

The commanding tone shocked the Blutbad just enough for him to actually comply and take two steps back. He hadn't realized that there was a branch just behind him until he did, and the way he tripped over it was so unlike his normally graceful self that he laid shaken on the ground for several long moments. Long enough to notice that the Grimm was oddly silent.

"Nick?" Monroe coughed out, finally drawing air into his lungs. He pulled himself up from the ground carefully, scanning the trees around him cautiously until he was sure that whatever it was that had been launching sticks at them was gone. Likely an Affenmensch, though he hadn't seen it for long enough to get a good look at it.

A moan was the belated reply to his call, and Monroe shot straight to his feet, restraining his instinct to shift even as he raced over to Nick's side. The detective was flat on his back with a branch impaled in his shoulder.

"Shit," Monroe cursed, dropping to his knees beside his friend. His initial instinct was to pull the branch out, but the instant he touched it, Nick’s hand shot up to grasp weakly at his wrist.

"Don’t," the dark-haired man rasped out. "That will only make things worse." The Blutbad withdrew his hand carefully, sinking back onto his heels to contemplate the situation.

"We need to get out of here," he finally said, watching Nick’s face for confirmation. There was a tiny ripple of concern in the younger man’s light eyes, but then steel grew up behind them - the iron will-power of a true Grimm.

"Whatever that was is likely to come back?" Just enough of an uplift at the end of the sentence to make it a question, but Monroe didn’t see the point in answering it. Nick knew by now that many of the creatures he encountered weren’t the sort to give up, to live and let live.

The detective tried to lift himself up slowly and carefully, not moving the branch still impaled in him. It didn’t work and he slumped back, his skin paler than usual. The sharp metallic scent of blood met Monroe’s sensitive nose and he felt something in him unlatch.

The redness invading his sight was his first sign that his control of the beast within him had slipped. He struggled for long moments to push it back into the depths of his brain. A half-pained, half-warning groan from Nick and the hooting of incoming Affenmenschen stopped him and with that last slip, the wolf emerged.

He was down on the ground almost before he knew it, in full wolf form, hackles raised. The monkey-like creatures stopped at the edges of the clearing, respecting the Blutbad in fully changed form as they hadn’t when he was still in the skin of a human. He took two steps to stand fully over Nick, growling dangerously at the creatures. Inside his brain, the human aspect of his mind was scrambling to find a way out of the situation, letting the lupine hind-brain take over outward operations.

That had been a mistake, he realized, as he snapped back to awareness to the taste of blood. He was licking at the wound in Nick’s shoulder, the detective having fainted. Likely when his wolf-self had pulled the branch out of his shoulder, the idiot that it was.

Or was it, he wondered, suddenly remembering that one of the reasons Blutbaden healed so quickly was because they licked their wounds. There was no reason to think that whatever healing powers infused his saliva wouldn’t work on a human, if Grimms were even entirely human. Indeed, the blood pooling out of Nick’s shoulder was already slowing.

The Affenmenschen were beginning to get more restless as more and more of them gathered. In a large enough group, they would be able to take the Blutbad down, and they knew it. Monroe knew it too and he once again retreated into his own mind, plotting how to get himself and Nick out of this forest and leaving the wolf instincts to continue tending the detective’s wound.

One foolish monkey-creature came within the bounds of the clearing. Monroe was once again jerked from his thoughts by the panic that seared through his lupine body. He snarled viciously at the Affenmensch, but the stupid thing seemed to feel that it had already taken the most critical step and survived, and it advanced on the two of them. The wolf was longing to leap at it and tear its throat out, but Monroe’s human forebrain knew that such an action would leave Nick unprotected. He was somewhat surprised by how effective that argument was - normally he would have to fight to retain any control, but the simple mention of leaving Nick chilled him and tamped down the instincts.

The Affenmensch was still advancing, circling part way around the clearing as though it hoped to surprise Monroe. He kept up his warning growl, hoping that it would see sense even though he had no real faith that it would. When it finally gathered its nerve and ran at him, hooting and waving its arms, Monroe almost breathed a sigh of relief. He took one step forward, his back half still positioned over Nick’s body, and dispatched the creature with an ease that would disturb him later. For now, though, his mind was focused entirely on protecting his Grimm and getting both of them away from danger.

His mind stuttered at that thought, backtracking speedily to the very possessive word that he just knew had to come from his lupine side. He’d just seized on it to distinguish Nick (who was friendly and nice and not inclined to kill every creature that crossed his path) from the more typical Grimms (like Marie, though he’d never say as much to Nick). That was his justification, enough to allow him to move on from the sudden shock. As he emerged from his deep thought, he thought of the idea of carrying Nick out of the forest. He was big enough in his shifted state to do it easily, if he could just find some way to keep the injured man on his back.

"Monroe?" The raspy voice drew his attention and he dropped his head to sniff at Nick’s hair. If he was awake, maybe he could hold on, maybe even get himself up onto Monroe’s wolf-form back. With that in mind, the large wolf took a step to the side and laid himself beside the injured detective, then rolled partway onto his side. He kept his head up and his eyes alert, knowing that he was in a very vulnerable position, with both his vulnerable back and soft belly exposed. Luckily Nick was quick to catch on and he rolled himself up against Monroe’s back, grasping the fur of his ruff with his good hand.

The Blutbad rolled back onto his belly carefully, conscious of Nick’s position and whether it felt like he was slipping off. The detective seemed to be hanging on for dear life, his knees pressing in just behind Monroe’s ribs and his hand tugging at the fur on the wolf’s neck.

The imminent loss of their injured target was enough to rile the Affenmenschen up and as Monroe was getting all four feet firmly under him, they began to hoot their war cry. The Blutbad might never have heard the sound before, but the meaning of it was clear enough. He took one breath’s worth of time to make sure Nick was well-balanced on his back and then he began to run across the clearing. He knew they were ringed in, so the safest way out was to try to not get into thicker woods. Even though they had come in the opposite end of the small forest, the breeze that tickled his nose told him that the trees thinned out only a few minutes in the direction he was heading. Better to loop around the outside of the forest, hiding in the long grasses.

The Affenmenschen were still working themselves up into a lather as he passed under them in long loping strides, but a few branches hurtled down around them and Monroe knew he didn’t have long before the creatures were after them. They could move through the trees as quickly as thought and he knew he wouldn’t be able to outrun them if he didn’t get out from the densely wooded areas first. He knew that the jarring ride was probably hurting Nick, but he didn’t dare slow down even a beat.

Monroe was sensible enough to know that the instinctual part of his brain was far more adept at navigating through the trees than his sensible human thoughts ever would be, so he focused solely on Nick’s weight on his back, letting go of his body to follow its instincts. His stride smoothed out the instant he stopped trying to control it and he heard a slight sight sigh of relief from the detective on his back.

Monroe could see the sunlight breaking through the trees ahead, signalling that they were almost to safety when a half-dozen Affenmenschen dropped down in front of him. The fastest of the bunch, the forerunners who would delay him until the others came. He stopped as quickly but gently as he could, hearing a whimper from Nick nonetheless. The pain in that single noise sent a furious tendril of red through his brain, wrapping around the backs of his eyes and giving everything a hazy look. The Affenmenschen seemed slightly intimidated by the loud growl he let out but their group dynamic was enough to keep them from backing down.

A moan from Nick was all it took to remind Monroe of the responsibility he had to protect the injured man, and with an even louder growl, he gave up his hope of fighting his way past the monkey-like creatures. Instead, he used his enhanced vision to search for a safe way out of the situation.

There was a low outcropping of rocks slightly to the right of where he had been heading, the Blutbad noticed, close enough that he could likely jump up onto it given the right momentum. It was blissfully bare of trees and likely too steep for an Affenmensch to easily scale. It would only give him a few moments lead, but that was all he really needed. He judged the distance carefully, consulting with his base instincts to determine the safest and most efficient way of getting up to the top of the outcropping without Nick falling off his back.

In the end, he had to let go of his thoughts and let his body do the work for him. Without the worries of his over-thinking human mind, the jump was a simple (though athletic) feat. The Affenmenschen were unable to do anything but watch as he sailed over their heads gracefully, landing with precision on top of the rocks with Nick still balanced perfectly on his back. He didn't waste much time gloating, instead turning and racing off down the rocks and further out of the woods.

Monroe only felt safe to stop once they were safely out of the trees and into the meadows surrounding the forest. He laid down carefully, letting Nick slide off his back and onto a soft cushion of grass. He knew that he would probably need to get the injured detective back up so that they could make it back to the car, but he couldn't resist his desire to check on him. The Grimm had been disturbingly quiet for too long, and the Blutbad was concerned that he had passed out. A quick nose into his ear woke Nick up and he groaned slightly as his movements jarred his shoulder. Monroe was quick to check on it, noting with pleasure that it seemed to be holding together very well. There was only one spot where the clotting had broken from bouncing around so much.

It only took Monroe a little nudging to get Nick back up on his back, though the detective's grip was undeniably weaker than it had been the last time. Even without losing blood, the injury was taking its toll and exhausting the Grimm. Monroe pleaded mentally with his friend, asking him to just hold on a little longer so that they could make it to the car and call for help. He took the trip back to the car at a much slower pace as an apology, pleased to feel Nick's fingers still laced through his fur and hanging on with determination. Coupled with the lack of groaning, he thought that he was doing a relatively good job of not hurting his friend.

His hopes were held out when they made it to the car without further incident and Nick was able to slide off Monroe and get the front door open. Even in wolf form, the Blutbad was agile and he quickly crawled into the car and retrieved the detective's cell phone and radio for him. Nick took them with a slight nod of appreciation and quickly dialed his partner.

"Hank? Nothing here, but a tree branch fell on me and I've got a nice hole in my shoulder to show for it. I think my wilderness expert friend should be able to bring me in." Monroe's heart dropped. Changing to wolf form was easy enough, but changing back was much more difficult. Of course, Nick wouldn't know that because he'd never been told and the Grimms that wrote the instruction books he read had probably never bothered to find out. Now Monroe was faced with changing back and getting Nick to a hospital, and he couldn't tell the detective to just get help and leave the car here. His attempt to paw at the other man and capture his attention was met with a reassuring (and somewhat demeaning) pat on the head, so he sighed and tried to concentrate on once again repressing his instincts and lupine hind-brain to resume his human form.

"You can change back, right?" Nick's voice broke through his concentration and he realized that the Grimm was staring at him in concern and that he had likely been talking to him for several minutes. Without the ability to respond, Monroe was reduced to approximating a shrug with his lupine body. A panicked look crossed Nick's face and as he scrabbled around with his hands for his phone, the Blutbad felt a definite tugging sensation in the pit of his stomach. He hunkered down, his vision graying out and then going a blinding white.

His next sight was the Grimm leaning over him, concern written clear in his expression. When Nick noticed that he was back, he slumped against the car with a sigh of relief.

"I guess coming back isn't as easy as turning into a wolf, huh?" the detective said, his voice faint.

"You have no idea, man," Monroe said, his voice equally as faint, though he tried to affect a nonchalant attitude. He sat up, doing his best to preserve his modesty: changing to wolf form had destroyed his clothing. He always carried an extra set and it only took him a moment to slip into them. He immediately checked on Nick, who seemed to have slipped back into his weariness now that he was assured of his safety.

"OK, buddy," Monroe muttered to the barely conscious man as he hoisted him into the passenger seat and buckled him in, always careful of the injured shoulder. "Now we've just got to get you to the hospital and hope they don't notice that you have wolf slobber all over you." He climbed into the driver's seat, mildly cursing his friend's short legs when he was forced to push the seat back a fair ways to get comfortable. He was about to shift the car into gear when a soft hand landed on his arm. He looked over to see Nick smiling at him.

"Thanks," the Grimm said, simply, holding his gaze intently. The Blutbad felt himself flush and looked down at the steering wheel.

"No problem, man," he said to the piece of leather-wrapped plastic. "Just next time you get hurt, try to do it somewhere where I don't have to wolf out to get you to safety." Nick's short bark of laughter warmed him, and he eased the car out onto the road, feeling like things were just maybe going to be OK.


End file.
